


Happy Accidents

by emmaface



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: ER AU, F/F, skimmons - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-03-12 03:43:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3342302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmaface/pseuds/emmaface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jemma has a little accident at the lab and wins herself a trip to the ER where a pretty stranger offers her some help filling in the admission forms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Accidents

**Author's Note:**

> I'm completely in love with Skimmons AU's right now. As always this is unbeta'd so apologies for any mistakes.   
> Hope you enjoy!

_'This is ridiculous!'_ Jemma scowled as she walked into the ER and made her way to the reception to check in. She was a professional scientist with a Ph.D. and was well on her way to acquiring a second she should not have ended up in the hospital as a result of a rookie mistake. 

“Name?” the woman behind the desk droned disinterestedly.

“Jemma Simmons.”

“Nature of injury?”

“Chemical burn to the right hand,” she sighed. The woman behind the desk actually lifted her head to look Jemma in the eye at the unusual injury. She pulled out a selection of forms and attached them to a clipboard.

“Fill these in and hand them back when you're done,” she said, handing her the clipboard and a pen. Jemma opened her mouth to voice a concern but the woman called for the next patient before she had a chance to say a word. Jemma gave a heavy sigh and moved away from the desk to give the next patient some privacy. She surveyed the busy waiting room and spotted an empty seat next to a brunette in a wheelchair who looked to be around her age; it seemed like a good place to sit.

“Hi,” the girl greeted her brightly as she sat down.

“Hello,” Jemma replied politely then focused her attention on the forms in front of her. Immediately she knew there was going to be a problem; she was right handed and her right hand was currently burning with pain and wrapped in about 3 inches of gauze bandage. She wished she hadn't been so quick to turn down Fitz's offer to accompany her to the hospital. She groaned quietly, piquing the attention of the girl in the wheelchair, and picked the pen up with her left hand, moving it around a few times to find a position that didn't feel completely foreign. She brought the pen to meet the paper a few times but it was proving difficult to keep it steady.

“Having some trouble?” the girl beside her chuckled softly.

“I'm very clearly not left handed and my right hand is out of action, how the bloody hell am I supposed to to fill these stupid forms out?” she growled with frustration, fiddling with the pen in her left hand some more.

“You know that accent of yours sounds adorable with you're mad,” the girl grinned and it broke Jemma out of her fit of anger and frustration. “Here, let me help you.”

“You don't have to-”

“As funny as it might be to watch you attempt to do this with your left hand, I doubt the writing will be legible,” she interrupted, reaching out to take the clipboard and pen from the English girl. “I know that telling your personal information to a complete stranger might not seem like a good idea but I promise that I'm not a psychopath or anything and I won't try to steal your identity.”

“I don't think a psychopath would admit to being one,” Jemma pointed out with a smirk.

“True!” the girl flashed a dazzling smile and Jemma felt completely disarmed by it. “I guess you'll just have to trust me.”

“Well I don't see any other way to get these forms filled out so I suppose I will just have to hope you're not a psychopath,” she shrugged.

“That's the spirit!” the girl cheered. “Ok, first things first; name?”

“Jemma Simmons.”

“Jemma Simmons,” she repeated slowly as she wrote it down. “It's nice to meet you Jemma, I'm Skye.”

“Skye,” Jemma echoed; she liked the way it sounded. “That's a nice name.”

“Why thank you, I picked it out myself,” she smiled. Jemma looked a bit confused but she didn't press the girl. “Date of birth?”

“11/9/87,” she rhymed off then realised her mistake. “Wait no I mean the 11th of September 1987. I always forget you Americans do the date backwards.” 

She proceeded to supply Skye with the information needed for the form, Skye tried to give Jemma some of her details too in order to make her a bit more comfortable sharing her information with a stranger.

“In case of emergency contact?”

“Oh I suppose I better put Fitz. All my family are back in England,” she frowned thoughtfully. “Leopold Fitz, the address is the same as mine.”

“Is he your boyfriend?” Skye asked, hoping the slight disappointment she felt didn't show in her voice. Jemma gave a short bark of laughter.

“What Fitz? No! He's just a friend,” she seemed to find the idea rather amusing. “We moved here together and obviously share a flat but that's really all there is to it.”

“I'll put friend/room-mate as the relationship to you then,” she smiled as she filled in the information. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Nope!”

“Girlfriend?” she couldn't stop herself from asking.

“No, I haven't got one of those either,” Jemma shook her head and smiled.

“So you're single then, that's good,” Skye smiled, her eyes widening in shock when she realised she had just vocalised that thought. Beside her Jemma was trying to hold back a smirk and Skye decided to press on with the final question on the form before it got awkward. “Nature of injury?”

“Sulphuric acid burn on my right hand,” Jemma sighed. Skye looked up from the form in surprise, she definitely hadn't been expecting that answer. Her brow furrowed in confusion.

“How did you-”

“I work in a lab,” Jemma pre-empted the question. “It was an accident and it was _not_ my fault!”

“Hey, I'm not going to argue with a mad scientist!” Skye grinned. “If you did that to yourself imagine what you would do to me for pissing you off!”

“I'm not a mad scientist!” Jemma argued with a laugh. “I'm serious, it really wasn't my fault. Whoever had been using the sulphuric acid before me failed to put the lid back on correctly, so when I picked it up to check the concentration the lid fell off and spilled all over my hand. My supervisor was not happy. We're all probably going to have to do a bunch of health and safety courses after this.”

“That sucks. It's like you're being punished for someone else's mistake.”

“As if this unnecessary trip to the emergency room wasn't enough,” Jemma gave a dry laugh.

“How do I spell sulphuric then? Is it an 'f' or a 'ph'?”

“It actually doesn't matter, both are correct but I personally tend to use ph because I think it looks better,” she clarified and Skye nodded as she wrote it down. “So what are you in for?”

Skye rolled her eyes and lifted the blanket that was covering her legs to reveal a blackened and swollen left ankle to Jemma, who winced upon seeing it.

“Not pretty, is it?” Skye laughed. “I was at a martial arts class and I landed a kick incredibly badly. I mean I'm fairly certain I heard something snap!”

“Oh God! It looks really painful,” Jemma said sympathetically.

“It really was, but they gave me a shot of something in the ambulance and it definitely helped,” Skye nodded approvingly.

“How long have you been here?”

“About 2 hours now,” she shrugged. “I've had an x-ray taken and now I'm waiting for them to decide what to do with me.”

“That's awful!”

“Well the last half hour hasn't been so bad,” she flashed a grin and raised her eyebrows at the scientist. Jemma felt her cheeks flush at the compliment; there was no denying the fact that she was also enjoying the girl's company.

“Here, this is finished. You should probably hand it in and hopefully you'll get seen quicker,” she handed the completed form back to Jemma who dutifully brought it back to the reception desk. On her way back towards Skye she spotted a couple of vending machines in the corner and it occurred to her that if Skye had been waiting for so long she would probably appreciate some refreshments. She filled the machines with money and pressed many numbers until she had an impressive selection of treats on her hands. It took some creative carrying but she managed to get them all back to her seat where Skye greeted her with surprise and delight evident in those beautiful brown eyes.

“You said you've been here for a while so I thought you might like some refreshments. Coffee?” she smiled and held out the hot beverage to the injured girl who gratefully accepted it. 

“I think you might actually be my hero!” she sighed dramatically, breathing in the rich aroma of the vending machine coffee.

“I didn't know what you liked and American junk food is really not my area of expertise so I just got a selection of treats,” she explained, pulling handfuls of candy out of her bag and dropping them in her lap.

“How long have you been here for anyway?” Skye asked, keen to find out more about the English girl.

“Almost two years.”

“Two years in the country and you don't know what candy is good here? What's wrong with you? Assimilate already!”she teased, grabbing a bag of mini Reece's cups from the other girl's lap.

“I'm sorry but the sweets here really just don't compare to the sweets back home,” she shrugged.

“I was right before; you are clearly a mad scientist because you are crazy if you're telling me there's anything better than a Reece's cup!” Skye shook her head in disbelief.

“I'm not crazy!” Jemma argued. “I am right though. American chocolate just isn't as sweet or smooth as English chocolate; it's just not as good.”

Jemma reached across to steal one of the peanut butter cups from Skye who slapped her hand away playfully.

“No way! You can't diss my candy and then expect me to share!” she huffed. Jemma rolled her eyes and plucked a sweet from the packet on Skye's lap.

“One day you'll try some of my sweets and then you will realise that I am right!” she assured the other girl, unwrapping the sweet and popping it in her mouth.

“Your sweets, eh?” Skye raised her eyebrows suggestively, a sly grin creeping across her face. Jemma cringed when she realised what she had said.

“Anyway! Moving on from my unintentional double entendre,” Jemma urged the conversation forward before she could blush any further. “Tell me more about yourself Skye.”

They talked for the next 40 minutes about their lives, interests and experiences. Jemma learned that Skye was an IT specialist at a big security company and Skye learned how to accurately pronounce the title of Jemma's Ph.D. thesis. The conversation was light and effortless and Jemma couldn't help feeling like she had known Skye for much longer than an hour and a half. She was so engrossed in their conversation that she actually missed the nurse calling her name.

“Hey, that's you!” Skye interrupted her, nodding towards where the nurse with the clipboard was standing waiting for her.

“What?” For a minute Jemma had actually forgotten that she was in an ER waiting room and about the injury that had brought her here. She couldn't deny the sinking feeling of disappointment she felt at the idea of their conversation being cut short. Maybe Skye would still be here waiting when she was done. “Oh, right I suppose I better go and get this hand seen to. It was really lovely to meet you Skye. Thank you for all your help.”

“Thank you for making a hellish ordeal a lot more bearable!” Skye beamed back at her. The nurse called Jemma's name again in an incredibly impatient tone. “Go! You don't want to miss your turn and end up stuck here all night.”

“Yeah, right!” Jemma nodded. She opened her mouth to say something but turned on her heels and walked away before the words came out. Skye sighed as she watched the nurse lead Jemma down the hallway. She wished she had asked for her number or that she had given her hers or made some kind of arrangement to see her again because she couldn't shake the feeling that an hour and a half with Jemma Simmons just wasn't long enough. The scientist had been convinced that it wouldn't take them long to see to her injured hand so there was always a chance that Skye would still be here when she was leaving and she would get a second chance to exchange numbers. It seemed, however, that fate was not on her side as an orderly appeared to take her to have her ankle put in plaster.

Forty-five minutes, a hell of a lot of pain and several colourful swear words later Skye's ankle had been set in plaster. The nurse gave her a prescription for pain relief, a list of instructions on how to care for the plaster and a set of crutches and told her to come back in 6 weeks to get the plaster off. She was incredibly relieved that she was finally able to leave the hospital; she wanted to go home and lie on her couch watching Netflix and feeling sorry for herself. She was walking through the waiting area on her way to the door when she heard her name being called in a newly familiar accent. 

“Jemma?” she couldn't contain the smile that graced her face as the English girl approached her. “I thought you would have been finished ages ago.”

“I was,” she nodded, lifting her hand to show Skye the fresh bandages covering her burned hand. “But when I came back you were gone so-”

“So you waited for me?” Skye's heart fluttered at the gesture and the grin on her face grew larger.

“Well yes, you see I really enjoyed your company earlier and I was hoping that maybe I could see you again sometime...outside of the hospital, maybe we could go for a drink or some dinner or even a quick coffee if you'd like.”

“I'd love to!” Skye replied, halting Jemma's rambling. The chance to spend more time with this beautiful woman who she was fast developing a crush on was too good to pass up.

“Really?” Jemma smiled brightly. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and handed it to Skye to program her number into. She called her own phone so she would have Jemma's number and moved to had the phone back. She hesitated for a second, pulling it back as Jemma reached for it.

“I have kind of a crazy idea, why don't we have dinner now?” she asked, shrugging as best she could while holding on to her crutches. “I mean, I'm starved after being here all day and I enjoyed your company too, I don't want to part ways just yet. What do you say Jemma Simmons?”

“That sounds wonderful, mind if I make a suggestion though?”

Skye nodded for her to go on.

“Maybe we could order takeaway?” she frowned thoughtfully, feeling like the suggestion was a bit forward. “It would save you the embarrassment of being seen in public with someone who is currently incapable of using cutlery.”

“Sure, we can order in,” Skye laughed at the thought of Jemma attempting to use cutlery with her bandaged hand. “Your place or mine?”

“Why don't we go to your place?” she suggested. “Then I won't have to worry about you getting home from my place with an injured ankle.”

“Wouldn't want you to worry now, would we?” Skye grinned.

“Great! Shall we?” Jemma moved towards the door and held it open for Skye, as they waited together for a taxi Jemma couldn't help but think that maybe this accident wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to her.


End file.
